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BOW BRICKHILL & BLETCHLEY
PARK
Bow Brickhill played its own small part in history, providing
accommodation for some of those who worked at Bletchley
Park.
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Patricia in 1946 ......
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... and on her 80 birthday.
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Particia Burkitt was billeted at a house in Bow Brickhill while she
worked at Bletchley Park.
She had already met her future husband at the Park, an American, John
Hyman, and she went with him to the US in 1946.
Patricia, who lives in Philadelphia now, was billeted with Jack and
Doris Usher and their daughter Beryl in of the terraced cottages at the
bottom of the hill in 1944. There were two others girls from Bletchley
Park staying in the village too. She remembers a long narrow road that
led to Bow Brickhill and a big space - the village green with a monument
in the middle with a cross. Jack Usher was a railwayman who walked the
tracks hammering the blocks between the rails and cleaning coal from the
engines. The cottage had no bathroom or WC inside, only a privy outside.
Baths were taken at Bletchley Park.
Patricia remembers the post office nearby and a "grand lady who
ran things at the church and seemed to impress the locals" who
lived in a pretty house on the same side as the Ushers but a few doors
down. She didn't get involved with village life as workers from the Park
were sworn under the Official Secrets Act not to talk about what they
did so Patricia didn't socialise in the village. Her working shifts were
9 am - 4 pm, 4 pm - midnight, and midnight - 9 am.
If you have wartime memories or photographs of the village, please send
a copy of them to bb&bp@bowbrickhill.com
You can find out more about the history of Bow Brickhill by clicking
here.
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